Canada’s first AI-themed Startup Weekend is happening in Montreal
At the end of September, Montreal will play host to the first Startup Weekend in Canada on the theme of Artificial Intelligence (SWAI).
The result of a collaboration between the McGill Innovation Collective, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University, the Founder Institute, and Startup Canada, the event will bring together AI enthusiasts, developers, designers, and business-minded individuals who want to get together and turn an idea into a business.
Startup Weekend is a 54-hour competition with the goal of creating an environment for people to come together to learn, network, bridge the gap between trades, and produce actual results. Participants will have the opportunity to be mentored by technical professionals and entrepreneurs from the local startup and tech community.
“I organized a Startup Weekend last year as well as the Startup Weekend on Sustainability in January 2017, and this year I was approached by a few people, specifically Angelique Mannella’s team at McGill University,” Bonnie Chau, one of the organizers of the event told MTLinTECH. “They’re trying to do a lot of innovation initiatives at McGill. So the McGill Innovation Collective, along with the Postgraduate Student Society of McGill, a group for all the graduate and PhD students. And through their collaboration we’re trying to reach out to those who are specializing in artificial intelligence. I myself am a McGill alumni, so I was very happy to hear about this. It wasn’t something they had when I was in school.”
The event will be held on September 22-24, 2017 at the Thomson House (3650 McTavish) on the campus of the McGill University.
This edition of Startup Weekend will be part of an international initiative called Global Startup Weekend AI. The winning team at the Montreal weekend will win a trip to Paris to meet with other SW members and attend the Global SWAI conference.
“I was in touch with Jen [Riedel, Regional Manager - Startup Programs ] from Techstars, which is the parent company of Startup Weekend. And she told me to reach out to the ones in Paris because they are doing the Global SWAI initiative, in which the winning team has a chance to compete for the big prize of flying to Paris to meet with other Startup Weekend members around the world. So we contacted them and we are an eligible city. I’m super happy about that.”
The Montreal SWAI edition is also taking part in the Startup Canada Competition. From September 1st to October 1st, seven cities across Canada will compete through Startup Weekend programs, with the winning team from each city getting the opportunity to compete for a grand prize on October 3rd.
“This first Startup Weekend Canadian competition is the tipping point to inspire and educate Canadians, no matter where they are, to launch tech ecosystems like we did in Montreal, as well as to help each other,” Sergio Escobar, Startup Weekend Montreal Community Leader said in an announcement on the Techstars website.
The Montreal Startup Weekend competition will be judged by Sergio Escobar and Angelique Mannella, VP Associate of McGill Innovation, with more judges to be confirmed on the Facebook page in the coming weeks.
This Startup Weekend will also be distinguished in that IBM will be delivering workshops to give participants the right tools to accelerate building a product. From how to build a chatbot that engages in dialogue, to how to analyze unstructured data, to how to understand a user’s personality, tone and emotions using their Watson AI platform.
“Startup Weekends have a similar format because they all follow a branding guideline, but we have the ability to put different workshops into the whole weekend,” Chau told MTLinTECH. “We’re going to have IBM Canada come deliver a workshop of their Watson AI platform, which is an incredible resource for the participants. I’m also getting this new company called Procrastination.com, they are coming in for a quick workshop on a five minute pitch on Sunday morning. We’re going to get them to help with the pitching side, like how to pitch your business or story, and then Sunday will be the pitching day. That’s how we can make it different, by offering these workshops. So they learn it and then apply it immediately, which is amazing. You’re not just learning it and forgetting it, you’re using it on the spot right after.”
Interested individuals or teams should buy tickets here anytime before the event.
“There are limits to each category. There’s one for the AI expert, one for developers, one for designers, and one for non-technical. The non-technical is filling up fast, but the others are starting to fill up as well.”
+ There are no comments
Add yours